Page:Archæologia Americana—volume 2, 1836.djvu/254

 213 A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN TRIBES. [iNTROD. Of Ad nouns, (Adjectives.) Adnouns have the animate and inanimate forms, and agree wkh the leading noun, in form, number, and person. The inani- mate form of adnouns ends in i or e ; the animate form in es or esu. Inanimate, Wompi, white ; Plural, Wompiyeuash. .Inimate, Wompesu, Wompesuog. Put the affix (pronoun) to these, and they are verbs. Numerals, like adnouns, receive the grammatical variation, according to the things numbered, animate or inanimate. The numbers 6, 7, and 8, are formed from J, 2, and 3, by- adding tohshc, which has no meaning. The adnoun is frequently compounded with the noun, and then usually they are contracted. And when the noun becomes a verb, the adnoun becomes an adverb. Degrees of comparison are expressed by adding the words anue, ' more/ and nemo, ' more and more.' Of Verbs. There are two sorts of verbs, substantive and active. (The author seems to have designated as substantive verbs all those including the passive voice, in which we use the verb ' to be.' But he appears to have included our intransitive verbs, such as, ' I sleep/ ' I eat/ as belonging to the class of active verbs.) The verb substantive is when any thing has the signification of the verb substantive (am, art, is, &c.) added to it. Our Indians have no complete distinct word for the verb substan- tive, as learned languages and our English tongue have, but a regular composition whereby many w 7 ords are made verbs sub- stantive. And these may be referred to three sorts, so far as yet I see. The first sort is made by adding to the word, with due euphony, any of the terminations, o-oo, a-oo, yeu-oo. And this, be the word a noun, as woslcetompooo, ' he is a man ' ; or adnoun, as, wompiyeuoo, ' it is white ' ; or the word an adverb, or the like, as, mattayeuooutch, ' let it be nay ' ; nuxyeuooutch, 1 let it be yea.' The second sort is when the animate adnoun is made the third person of the verb and so formed as a verb, as wompesu,